Growing Up In Altea
by Free.Spirit140
Summary: Set in a reality where Earth 10,000 years ago was more like Earth today. Prince Lance, son of King Alfor and Queen Melenor, brother to Princess Allura. When Lance was a baby the King and Queen took a young half-galra under their wings at his mother's request. The adventures of a young altean prince and a half-galra whose relationship is yet to be defined. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

Krolia cradled the small bundle of blankets that contained her son close to her chest as she waited in the hangar bays of the Altean castle. She was lucky they had allowed her to enter their atmosphere, yet alone touch down inside of the castle.

She hadn't announced her visit before she showed up. It had honestly been a last minute decision on her part, having met with the king and queen of Altea previously, as the head of one of the major galra defence fleets she had been invited to be at the meeting discussing combining their forces and improving defence. It had been a formality really, with King Alfor and Emperor Zarkon being such close friends.

The meeting with the King and Queen had been, stiff. Formal. Even then the kind hearted, fun loving side of the royals had shone through their masks in a way that made Krolia curious as to what they were like without such formal settings.

Krolia knew they had a young daughter, barely 2 years old in earth years and already showing an intelligence beyond her age. She was already getting involved in political meetings, curtsying to royal guests and eating at public events with table manners Krolia was sure no one expected her to have.

Krolia also knew they had another child, only a month old, still keeping his poor parents up all night. Unless royals had nannies to deal with that. Either way they had their hands full.

Krolia knew she was about to be asking a lot more from acquaintances she had only met once or twice. Really though, she knew there were very few other options.

She shifted the blankets in her arms, allowing herself to better study her son's features. Purple galra ears poking out from the hair that was such a dark shade of purple it was easily mistaken as black when in certain lightings. Purple marks that matched her own were visible on his cheeks, standing out against the pale skin. He was sleeping, which prevented her seeing his eyes, so much like his father's she knew it would only make her heart hurt to see them.

The hangar bays opened with a woosh that made Krolia jump slightly. The king and queen breezed through the doors, several people surrounding them on all sides except the front. Defensive, Krolia noted. Understandably.

"We are sorry to keep you waiting," The king greeted, stopping a safe distance away "we were in a meeting with several of our advisors. Were you sent by Zarkon?"  
Krolia hesitated for a second, eyes flickering between the pair of royals in front of her. Was this really a good idea? She stole another look at her son. It was.

"It is I who should be apologising." Krolia said, bowing the best she could when she had such a delicate and important person in her arms "I came here unannounced. I am not here on business of the empire. My reason for visiting is more personal."

The king and queen exchanged looks before the king addressed her again "What is your purpose for visiting?"

Krolia took a deep breath, straightening to her full height "I have a favour to ask of you, one I fear may be too much for me to ask. I wish to make it clear that I have not planned this very well, I have not been depending on this, it something I decided to do at last minute. I am here with a child, as you can see. He is my own flesh and blood. He is, however, half human. The species that occupies Earth."

Mumbling started from the crowd. Altean, she noted, but she didn't need to understand them to be able to tell what they were saying. Communication with humans, ones that were not the leaders of the counties they had set up, was very much forbidden. Earth had been very clear on that fact. The leaders of the planet deciding to keep their people in the dark about species existing beyond their planet, until a time when they deemed it necessary. In exchange the leaders gave some of their planet's natural resources, ones that were hard to find on other planets, to the planets they were in communication with.

"I was on a communication run," Krolia quickly jumped to explain "I was only required to stay in Earth's atmosphere and communicate with the leaders of what Earthlings refer to as The United States of America. However, after finishing my connection with them my craft lost power to one of the engines. I went down.

"I was lucky to have survived. A Human rescued me from my damaged craft, provided me with care for my injuries and helped me repair my ship. It took longer to repair the ship without galra technology and I was surprised my crash seemed to go unnoticed by anyone other than the human that saved me. We fell in love. I had every intention of returning to the galra but-" she clutched her son closer to her chest "-I fell pregnant."

The King was silent for a moment before asking "What does this have to do with Altea."

"Nothing. At least-" here we go, Krolia took a breath, remembering how ridiculous her request was going to sound "-not yet. My son is neither human or galra. He exhibits traits for both. Most of his biology and behaviour patterns follow that of humans, whilst his appearance is too galra for him to pass as human.

"He cannot stay on earth, he would never be able to live a normal life, a happy life. It would be hard for him to return with me to the galra. I am an officer, in charge of one of the defence fleets for both Altea and the Galra, a demanding and dangerous job. Caring for a child whilst doing such a job is impossible, though I cannot quit the job as I would then be unable to provide for him. The other galra would not know how to treat and care for him. He is very different to galra children. Requires a different diet. Different care. Hiring help to care for him whilst I am working would be impossible.

"That is why I am here your highnesses. My son is not Altean by any means, but human and altean biology and behaviour are very similar. Alteans also have no problem with half-breeds to my knowledge, he could easily pass as half Altean, half Galra, and I would be able to visit and speak with him regularly-"

The queen held up her hand to silence her and spoke clearly into the room "Are you asking us to care for your son? To raise him?"

"If not you then another altean family. Of any kind. Please. I am aware of how ridiculous this sounds. I am aware very few people will be willing to take in a 6-month-old half galra, half Human child. But I have very few options." Krolia maintained eye contact, refusing to let her nerves show. This was what was best for her son.

The queen stole a glance at her husband who nodded in response to her silent question. The queen carefully approached Krolia, eyes trained on the blanket bundle in her arms. Krolia bent down to allow the queen to see the treasure in her arms.

Upon seeing the sleeping boy the queen smiled, motioning the king to come forward. The king obliged, closing the gap between himself and the galra before him. He too smiled when he saw the boy.

"Do you not think Lance would benefit from having a friend his own age within the castle?" The queen asked, smiling "Allura has Veronica, the serving girl's daughter."  
Krolia was taken aback. Zarkon was very clear with his rules about the higher and lower classes interacting. Did the Alteans have such a relaxed policy when it came to class interactions?

"It may well benefit him." The king agreed, eyes never leaving the sleeping baby "The nursing maids would be able only too happy to accept the responsibility of another infant. Jenefa especially has a love for researching different species and the care required for them."

"She could be his main carer." The queen stated, before turning her attention back to Krolia "And you would wish to have continuous and frequent contact, miss-"

"Krolia, your highness. You can call me Krolia. And yes, he is my treasure, I would hate to not have contact with him."

"I see." The queen looked at her husband, who made eye contact with her, another silent conversation taking place before her attention returned to Krolia "We will take your son in. You will be given our private contact details and unconditional access to the castle and Altea.

"And another thing, from now on, you will not refer to us as your highnesses. If we are to be referring to you as Krolia you are to refer to us as Alfor and Melenor. If we are to be caring for your son then I am sure we will be becoming good friends very quickly, Krolia."

The king turned to speak to one of the alteans who was still in the hangar. She rushed off as soon as the king was done speaking and he turned to address Krolia again "What's this young ones name?"

"Keith." Krolia stated "Keith Yorak Kogane."


	2. Chapter 2

Allura beamed down at the paper in front of her, smiling at the bright cartoon juniberry flower she had spent the better part of 10 dobashes colouring in. She had taken so much care to not go outside of the lines and to pick the correct colour to colour it with, her eyes leaving the paper only when she was selecting colours. It was perfect if she did say so herself.

Allura smiled, making to get up with the intention of taking the colouring to the throne room to show her parents, but stopping short at the sight of Keith, standing next to her, eyes trained on Allura's colouring.

"Keith?" Allura questioned, drawing the attention of the four-year-old "Is everything alright?"

He said nothing, instead he slid a piece of paper onto Allura's table and on top of her flower. Keith had never been much of a talker, he prefered to let Lance do most of the talking. Allura had heard the grown ups talking about it once, they guessed it was because Keith constantly jumbled up English and Altean since his mother had insisted he be raised knowing both. Not like Allura and Lance, who were to be raised speaking altean and pick up the universal language of english when they were older.

Allura blinked at the paper, for a second before she lent forward over the table slightly to get a better look. The page was a mess of black lines, criss-crossing in some places to create a picture that very vaguely resembled people. Allura counted the figures, three of them were tall, one being taller than the other two quite noticeably, whilst the remaining three were shorter, more of the same hight give or take. Two of the figures has triangles on their heads that vaguely resembled galra ears. Allura took note, figuring out which drawing was meant to be which person before nodding and smiling at Keith.

"You drew all of us?" Allura asked, receiving only a nod in reply.

"My mother and father?" Allura asked, pointing at the two tall drawings.

Keith nodded, smiling.

"Lance?" Allura guessed, finger trailing to the left of the two tall drawings to the smaller one next to them.

Keith shook his head, smile dropping a bit as if the idea of Allura not recognising the picture physically hurt him.

"Me?"

Keith nodded, eyes downcast.

"So this is Lance?" her finger trailed to the left of the drawing of her to the next small drawing.

Keith nodded, small smile playing on his lips again as he looked back at the drawing.

"And this is you?" Allura pointed at the small drawing next to Lance's, this one being one of the two with triangles on its head.

Keith nodded, smiles growing as Allura continued to guess correctly.

"And this is your mother?" Allura pointed at the largest drawing, standing to the left of the drawing of Keith, complete with triangle ears.

Keith nodded, beaming now.

"It's lovely Keith!" Allura praised, picking it up to hand it back to him "You should colour it!"

At this Keith frantically shook his head, refusing to take the paper off Allura and instead trying to force her extended arm to bend back towards her body "Can you colour it?"

Allura froze at the request, eyes widening to the size of dinner plates. Keith wanted her to colour his drawing? Her?

"Why not ask Lance?" Allura couldn't help but ask, eyes trailing to the table her brother was currently sat at, back towards them but occasionally shooting glances over his shoulder, pout planted to his face.

"Lance not good at colouring. Messy." Keith stated simply, folding his arms.

Allura opened her mouth to say that Keith's drawing wasn't the neatest thing in the galaxy, but quickly closed it, opting to instead say "I would love to colour your drawing Keith."

Keith flashed Allura what must have been the brightest smile she had ever seen from him before he quickly ran back to the table he and Lance were sharing.

Allura was barely finished colouring the first drawing when a second was dropped onto her table, this one of a flower. Allura, couldn't find it in her heart to turn down the silent request when Keith was giving her the biggest, most hopeful eyes she had ever seen.

More drawings quickly followed and Allura was quick to take on another challenge. After all, colouring Keith's drawings was more fun than colouring out of a book.

…

"You did very well today Allura." Her teacher praised as Allura moved to leave the room "You're learning quickly."

"Thank you." Allura smiled, opening the door "I shall see you next week?"

"Of course Princess."

Allura exited the study, moving straight towards the playroom. The thought of how many drawings would be piled on her table making her move quicker, smile pulling on her lips. Keith's drawings had improved over the last few months, getting neater and easier to colour, as if he was trying to make it easier for Allura.

When she finally entered the playroom she rushed to get her colouring pencils before moving to her table to find… nothing. That was odd.

Allura looked behind her to see Keith and Lance sitting at their table, each working on something with concentration on their faces. She pulled a face before getting up and moving over to the two.

"No drawings today Keith?" Allura asked casually, moving around to stand behind Keith to find the young boy was, in fact, drawing.

She let her eyes fall on what Lance was colouring, surprised to see a drawing that could have only been Keith's sat before him, half coloured. She let her eyes trail to a small pile of drawing sitting in front of Lance, a strange feeling filling her stomach.

"Lance colouring." Keith answered plainly, not bothering to look up from the drawing he was working on.

"I thought you said Lance's colouring was messy?" Allura accused, folding her arms and focusing on her brother who had his tongue poking out slightly as he focused on his colouring.

"Better now." came the monotone reply.

Allura huffed, picking up a pile of coloured drawings from beside Lance and flipping through them, eyes widening as she looked at them. She had never known her brother to take such care when colouring. All of the colour was between the lines and the colours had been carefully chosen.

Allura pouted, placing the pile back onto the table and moving back to her own, collecting a colouring book on the way.

She supposed colouring books weren't too bad...


	3. School Part 1

Keith clung to Melenor's dress with a grip that made his knuckles turn white, hiding behind her legs and staring at the room as if it was filled with hundreds of monsters. In reality however, it was simply full of young altean children, something, Melenor realised, that might as well be a monster to Keith.

Lance was already chatting to a child by the dollhouse that was set up to the left of the classroom, waving his arms frantically as he described the Castle of Lions to the uninterested child, who merely continued playing with the dolls.

Melenor surveyed the room with an eagle's eye, taking note of what toys were present and what toys were looking run-down. This school was one of only three on Altea, although it often went overlooked where fundings were concerned as the headteacher had the school participate in many fundraising events that were widely popular. Melenor and all but insisted on visiting the school herself when they had refused the third offer of funding by the royal council in a year.

The visit was far from formal, Melenor ensuring that the school believed that she was only visiting as a perspective parent/guardian looking to send the prince and Keith to their school.

Keith was well known to the Altean public by now, having attended planet-wide events. His mother was also well-known, having attended many herself. The king and queen made sure Keith's situation was made clear, although much of the story was twisted to be less complicated. Keith was, as far as the public knew, half Altean, half Galra, and would be raised to be Lance's personal guard when he reached the ideal age.

So of course, the school jumped at the chance to show the queen around their building, once they found out that the prince and another member of the royal household would be joining their numbers.

Melenor focused her attention on her son once again, who had given up on talking about his home to someone he didn't get a response from and instead moved to the creative table to finger paint with several other children. Keith still clung to her dress, pressing himself into her legs as if they would save him from whatever this noisy, messy, child-filled world would throw at him. He wasn't very socialised, Melenor noted, not used to spending time with anyone but Lance and the odd child that escaped their parent's eyeline during public events. Then again, Lance was similarly poorly socialised, but he seemed to be taking it in his stride. Lance smiled, and talked, did his fair share of listening to anyone that spoke to him, and generally conducted himself very well for such a young child.

"This is, of course, our primary education room," The headteacher explained from beside the queen "it is not like other classes. Children this age benefit better from colours, shapes, and playing as opposed to strict class schedules." He turned to face her and she mimicked the movement, moving to face him as best she could with Keith clinging to her.

"I am truly, very impressed by the class size you have here," Melenor stated, glancing at the 30-odd children running around the room "how many primary classes do you have here?"

"We have three classes that cater to children of this age-range. Each has a teacher and a teaching assistant, every so often there will be a student teacher present as well. Nothing but the best teachers in their field of course."

"Of course." Melenor smiled, turning her attention back to Keith "Keith, perhaps you would like to go and play whilst I see the rest of the school?" Keith frantically shook his head.

"No." He responded, English instead of Altean she noted.

"The boy speaks English?" the headmaster asked, focusing his attention on Keith as well.

"It was deemed appropriate for him to be raised speaking both. Due to his heritage." The queen explained, allowing her hand to rest on Keith's head in an attempt to sooth the boy.

"Ah, of course." the headmaster leaned forward, moving so he was closer to Keith's level "Kei-"

"Keith!" Lance yelled from the other side of the room, interrupting the headteacher who straighten up again, sending the prince a confused look. Keith's attention seemed to be caught as well, his eyes snapping to Lance.

Lance was waving frantically, hands covered in paint. As soon as he saw that he had Keith's attention he moved to hold up a smeared finger painting, waving it like a sign. Keith released Melenor's dress to return the wave and give a small thumbs up, but not moving even a step away from Melenor. Lance frowned, putting the painting down and getting off of the stool he had been sat on. Lance toddled over to Keith, pausing to smile at Melenor and the headmaster before holding his hand out to the other boy.

Keith stared at it for a second before reaching out and taking it, pulling a face at the squelching sound made as the paint was squished between the two hands. Lance laughed, before gently pulling, gently guiding Keith to the table he had just vacated.

"Well then, now that that is sorted-" the headmaster turned to face the queen again, bowing slightly as he did so "-we may begin our tour. If you would kindly follow me your highness."

…

"Oh Alfor, for goodness sake, I do not understand why you are so against this!" Melenor huffed, pulling her nightdress over her head as Alfor moved to get into the bed "It would be a great experience for the boys!"

"I already explained this Melenor," Alfor sighed, picking up a book from the nightstand "I simply do not see the need for the boys to go to a public school when we can simply get a tutor for them like we did for Allura."

"Oh and a fat lot of good that is doing her!" Melenor retorted, marching to her dressing table and picking up a bottle of make-up remover "She rarely leaves her room nowadays Alfor! She always has her nose buried in studying, I don't think I've seen her talk to another person since Veronica stopped coming to work with her mother."

"She speaks to plenty of people. She talks to us, the staff, her tutor, she socialises at even-"

"That is not what I mean!" Melenor shouted, turning abruptly to face her husband again "Name me one conversation that poor girl has had that is not formal or about studying. Name me one, and I may concead you a point."

"Every night at dinner she-"

"A conversation that she actively talks in Alfor. Not a conversation that involves Lance talking to us and her simply listening in. A conversation where she actively speaks about herself or her interests."

Alfor hesitated, looking lost in thought for a second before he sighed, closing his book and replacing it on the nightstand. Melenor knew instantly that she had won.

"Alright, say I cannot think of a conversation like that, what would you have me do Melenor? The tutor Allura has is the best teacher Altea has to offer, she's years beyond other students of her age, and I cannot fire the poor man for doing his job so well."

"I am not saying you have to fire the man, I'm simply saying that the boys, and Allura, should be allowed to choose if they want to go to a public school or be tutored in the castle." Melenor moved back to the bed, sitting down on the edge with her legs hanging off "Besides, it's not like their education will be greatly affected." Melenor picked the prospectus up from her nightstand, handing it to her husband who reluctantly took it.

"'Primstone school has the greatest number of success stories when it comes to teaching, all students perform either on target or above target by the time they move to upper school when they are thirteen.' I suppose that is rather impressive." Alfor murmerd, Melenor smirked, sensing her victory.

"It's even more impressive when you consider the number of students they take, three classes of around 30 students per age group. And that's not all-" Melenor lent over to turn the prospectus over in her husband's hands "they teach advanced mathematics for more advanced students, English is an obligatory subject from age 9 and up, and there are after-school options to teach Galran along with other languages. They also have a pool to help students learn to swim, they have a vast number of clubs that students can join and they run it all through fundraising, imagine how it would run if we could get them accept grant money."

"It is impressive," Alfor conceded, running a hand through his hair with a sigh "and I suppose we could ask Coran to pick them up and take them in… alright. We can ask them what they would like to do tomorrow and I can see about arranging it."

"That is all I ask."


	4. School Part 2

Lance practically bounced into school three weeks later, smiling a smile that could easily blind anyone that looked directly at it. Keith took a quieter, more reserved approach, walking next to Coran and fiddling with the strap on his bag, eyes not once leaving the young prince's back.

Coran watched, amused at the noticeable difference between the two. He took a moment to wonder why of all people had agreed to go to school when he could have remained in the castle and been homeschooled like Allura. Keith was clearly a boy who prefered limited company as opposed to a crowd of near strangers. But, Coran realised, Keith's idea of 'limited company' was Lance. The same Lance that was currently 6 feet ahead of them looking like he had been force fed a bag of sugar. If Lance wanted to go to school Keith was going to stick to him like glue.

"We're here! We're here!" Lance cheered, stopping his excited skip to jump up and down on the spot in front of the school gates "Keith, can you believe it?" He turned to face Keith, smile still stuck in place on his face.

Keith didn't respond, eyes looking past Lance and at the huge crowd of children and parents that had gathered on the other side of the gate, hands gripping his bag strap so hard that his knuckles threatened to burst through his skin.

Lance's smile dropped and he turned to look where Keith was looking. The prince paused for a second before turning back to Keith and carefully detangling the half-galra's hands from the strap "Hey? We'll be fine okay? I promise. This is going to be fun!"

Keith tore his eyes from the crowd, making eye contact with Lance who had strapped on a reassuring smile. Keith searched the blue eyes for any sign that the prince was lying and seemed to find none because he gave a small, determined nod.

Lance beamed, dropping one of Keith's hands but keeping hold of the other and turning so he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Keith "Together?"

"Together." Keith repeated quietly, giving Lance's hand a small squeeze.

"Alright you whippersnappers, you be good in there! Make friends, have fun and learn lots!" Coran encouraged, beaming.

"We will!" Lance called, already guiding Keith through the gates "See you later Coran!"

Coran waved, watching as the two boys disappeared into the crowd of parents that had all started moving towards the gates in an attempt to leave.

They would be fine... he hoped.


End file.
